Social Science Research Council

Social scientists have for some time been drawn to discussions of urban space. From the disciplines of geography and urban planning, but also anthropology, sociology, history, and political science, their work is increasingly attuned to the strong interconnections between the social and physical landscapes that make up cities. Yet with few exceptions, social scientists have not been systematically brought into dialogue with architects about the design and development of the built environment and its relations to social, political, economic, and cultural institutions and processes.

The Sustainable Cities (SC) initiative is an effort to enable exchange and collaboration between the social sciences and architecture around critical issues of sustainability that are facing contemporary cities – issues which are at once social and spatial and require a new level of cross-disciplinary investment.  SC is organized in partnership with Van Alen Institute (VAI), an independent non-profit architectural organization whose mission is to promote inquiry into the processes that shape the design of the public realm.

In 2008-2009, the SSRC and VAI through the Sustainable Cities initiative will support The New York Prize Fellowship in Sustainable Cities and the Social Sciences. Strategically situated between academia, the professions, and the general public, the fellowship broadens the scope of traditional academic research, publishing, and conferences to include innovative public programming that engages contemporary urban public life and the built environment. Program thematics may be framed generally to bridge social science discourses on environmental sustainability with those of architecture, or focused on specific topics or issues, such as urban infrastructure, governance, greenwashing, cultural identity, or environmental justice.

The SSRC-VAI Fellowship is not intended to function as an academic sabbatical or a retreat, but rather a platform for public engagement. Fellows are provided the opportunity to curate a public project in New York City, to pursue their work in a multidisciplinary workshop environment amidst architects and other spatial practitioners on matters of public concern, to fully immerse themselves in the cultural and physical landscapes of New York as both resource and research laboratory, and to actively participate in the Institute’s programs and workshops. .